Do you, or have you, trained athletes in your in-person training business? If so, then why can’t you attract athletes to your online training business? Quite often trainers overlook athletes as potential clients. Many personal trainers focus on the “fat loss” everyday athlete type of client. If you have experience working with athletes in-person, then you’ll probably do great training them online as well, through your online training business.

There are a few reasons why athletes make for great online training clients.

Athletes are very focused, hard-working, and on a mission to get better. They have the drive to work hard and do what it takes to be better at their sport. They also try their best to prevent injuries.

Whether they are working towards a goal to get recruited to a college, get drafted to the pro’s, or are already playing in college or the pro’s, all athletes need to train smart and learn to take care of their bodies.

Whether it is off-season, pre-season, or in-season training programs, all athletes should be following a periodized program to allow their bodies to perform optimally at all times. There’s always an abundance of athletes seeking training, so why not try and get a few of them as online clients for your online training business?

Here are 3 Ways You Can Get Athletes using Your Trainerize Online Training Platform:

1. Offer Hybrid Training Packages

This is a great way to cut down your in-person training sessions (trading time for money). Develop packages that have the athlete learn to work independently, but are still under your watchful eye. This could be structured in many different ways, depending on each client and how your business is set up. A few ideas are to have an athlete see you for training sessions once per week, and then perform their other weekly workouts independently through your Trainerize app.

Now, depending on your training space set up, you could have the athletes still training at your gym while they are performing their independent workouts (so you can still keep an eye on them if you are perhaps working with another client).

Again, this would depend on your gym set up, and frequency of sessions would be dependent on the athlete, your schedule, and overall set up of the athlete’s program. For example, perhaps they need you there for certain workouts for a spot, or they are performing more heavy lifts where form revision is important.

2. See an Athlete for an In-Person Assessment and Create a Program for them to Follow Online

I have done this with some of the younger athletes I train at my studio. Many high school aged athletes do not do much strength training, injury prevention exercises, or follow any programs. I’ve found that they are often too busy with practices and games. They’re not too crazy about injury prevention and strength training work. They’re too busy during season for weekly in-person appointments.

My solution? I see them for one in-person session, and then provide them with an online training program to follow independently. We do follow-up sessions bi-weekly or monthly (depending on the individual) to progress them and check-in.

This also works with older athletes who might just play recreational sport, or are great at working out independently, but just need a program and structure to follow. I’ve found this is a great way to grow both my in-person and online training business, without trading my time for money.

3. Seek Strictly Online Training Athletes

The beauty of online training (and the internet) is that it allows you as a coach to reach people/potential clients all over the world. If you have experience training athletes in-person, you can market this training strictly online, to grow your business/clientele.

You may be wondering if you’ll be lacking that in-person motivation, and that connection between client and trainer, with online training. However, depending on how you structure your programs, you could still obtain a great connection with online clients. Frequent Skype sessions, live workouts, progress checks, and frequent communication with athletes is key. This is based on how you structure your pricing, and how tuned in you want to be with your clients.

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Michelle is the resident fitness expert for Trainerize. She has 8 years’ experience in the fitness industry training clients through her own business including: professional and elite level athletes, celebrities, online clients, and average people with fitness and fat loss goals, to name a few. She holds a bachelor's degree in Kinesiology, is a Certified Strength and Conditioning Specialist (NSCA) and a certified level 1 Nutrition Coach. Michelle wakes up happy every day because she is able to do what she loves for a living.
View all Articles by Michelle Roots